Much on-line content, such as content presented in web pages, is provided free of charge to the user. Web site owners and content owners utilize various revenue models to monetize the content. Advertising models are the most common revenue model on the web today. Web site owners and content owners are compensated by directly or indirectly allowing ads to be displayed in connection with the content.
There are two primary ad revenue models on the internet, CPM and CPC. “CPM” stands for “cost per thousand” (where M denotes “mille”, meaning “thousand” in Latin). In this model, the site owner charges advertisers a rate (for example 10 cents per thousand) based on the number of the advertiser's ads shown to site visitors. “CPC” stands for “cost per click”. In this model, advertisers are charged based on the number of times users click on links in the ads. Ads may be served by the site owners or through a third-party ad network service, such as Google™ Adsense™.
In a simple form, ads can merely be displayed in a static manner along with content. An early form of internet advertising was the static “banner” ad, i.e. a single advertisement displayed across the top portion of the web page along with the content. However, in recent years, the serving of ads has become more sophisticated and, thus, more complex. For example, plural ads are displayed on a web page in coordination with each other. Also, ads are presented as static images, video clips, audio clips and the like. As a result, many guidelines and standard practices have emerged regarding the display of plural ads in coordination with each other and in coordination with content. For example, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (“IAB”), a trade association of leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling a majority of online advertising in the United States, has promulgated such guidelines.
Recently, it has become desirable to serve ads in an even more complex manner. For example, various business models require that rules be applied to serving ads. An advertiser might want to be guaranteed that their ad will not be displayed on a page with an ad for a competitor. Also, it may be desirable to display an ad at a specified frequency or it may be desirable to display multiple ads in synchronization with each other. Such rules are difficult to implement when displaying ads in a refreshable manner.
For example, when an ad is to be changed, i.e. refreshed, the entire page can be refreshed by making a new request to the server. However, this requires that the entire process of making the page be reiterated, including making new ad requests from the ad network services serving ads on the page. Such a process is resource intensive.
While the system and method is described herein by way of example and embodiments, those skilled in the art recognize that the platform for serving on-line advertisements is not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood that the drawings and description are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed. Rather, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention defined by the appended claims. Any headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used herein, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include”, “including”, and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.